Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson, president of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., is the first African-American woman to lead a national research university as well as the first woman and the first African-American to chair the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. In 1997, Dr. Jackson was elected the first Chairman of the International Nuclear Regulators Association established by Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States.

A theoretical physicist, Dr. Jackson was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society for her theoretical work on helium films. In her 20 years with AT&T Bell Laboratories, she made significant contributions to the communication science field and still consults for that company in semiconductor theory.

Dr. Jackson serves on the National Research Council on the Commission on the Physical Sciences, Mathematics and Applications and the Committee on Women in Science and Engineering. She also serves on the advisory board for NOVA and of the Merck Science Education Institute.

She graduated as valedictorian from the segregated Roosevelt High School in Washington, D.C., in the 1960s and then joined the first wave of African-American students to be accepted at MIT. She was one of only two African-American women in her undergraduate class and the first to earn a doctorate from that institution. She was one of the first African-American women in the United States to earn a doctorate in physics. Her presence and success at MIT encouraged more African-American students to enroll there. Dr. Jackson is now a life member of the MIT Corporation, the institution's board of trustees.

She has been awarded 10 honorary doctoral degrees. For her work as a scientist, as an advocate for education, science and public policy, Dr. Jackson was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1998.

• Profile updated in 2007